Lion Links: 9/2/19

Merry Monday morning, Mane Landers! If you’re reading this, then you should have power and internet. If hurricane preparation kept you from having to watch Orlando City’s loss at San Jose, you were lucky. Hopefully, Florida will also get lucky and Dorian’s impact won’t be too bad. Please take all reasonable precautions, and check in with us to let us know you’ve made it through. We’ll do our best to keep giving you something ro read in the meanwhile.

But first, let’s take a moment to wish Orlando City defender Shane O’Neill a happy 26th birthday!

Woes Continue for Orlando City

The Lions were dominated for 33 minutes to start the match at San Jose, and were never able to recover. The possibility of making the playoffs is dwindling with each point dropped, and it doesn’t get any easier with international players away for the match against LAFC. Head Coach James O’Connor was frustrated by his team’s slow start but he also owned up to his own culpability in the 3-0 loss in this piece by ProSoccerUSA.com.

“I don’t want it to be on the players,” O’Connor said. “I think I need to look at myself as well. I look at a couple of things I did tonight, I need to take responsibility for that. It’s not just the players. We definitely could and should have started the game better, but also I need to look at myself. I’ll accept responsibility.”

Americans Abroad

It’s a great time for the U.S. players in the various leagues around the world. With the likes of Christian Pulisic and Deadre Yedlin in the Premier League, or Weston McKennie and Josh Sargent in the Bundesliga, there is a lot for U.S. supporters to like. This weekend, the highlight was absolutely this magnificent goal from Sargent.

People are Horrible

Romelu Lukaku made a penalty kick for Inter Milan to give the club a 2-1 victory over Cagliari. He made the spot kick while enduring extremely racist chants and sounds from some Cagliari supporters. It is the type of thing that has been seen and heard all too often in stadiums across the world. It remains to be seen what actions Cagliari or Serie A officials will take regarding the supporters, but such sentiments have no place in soccer.

Free Kicks

• The United States Women’s National Team visited Minnesota Lynx players ahead of its match tomorrow night against Portugal at Allianz Field.
• It looks as though Arsenal midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan will be heading to A.S. Roma prior to the transfer window closing.
• The official logo of the 2020 World Cup in Qatar will be unveiled on towers across the world tomorrow so make sure to keep an eye out in the news for that.

That’s going to do it for today’s links. Make sure to stay safe and alert during this hurricane and try to enjoy your Labor Day if you can.